Where to put 32 Trusses?

One of the few items farmed out for construction are the roof trusses. If I put my mind and muscle to it, I suppose I could have built the roof from scratch but I decided to cheat a little. I ordered the trusses about four weeks ago and expected that they would not be ready until late August at the earliest. In one of the modern miracles of today, they arrived at the building site right on time. They arrived promptly at 7:30 AM on Wednesday. Now the question was where to put them. I could have rested them comfortably on some scrap wood on the ground. This way they would be out of the way and ready for roof raising time. The only problem with that scenario is that I would have to rent a crane and a crane operator to hoist them up over the second level of post and beam work. It would also require that I assemble a team of workers to raise these trusses while I pay a crane company an hourly rate.

I chose to have them delivered to the second floor on a boom truck. I’m not sure yet if this was a good move or not. My intentions are to build the second floor post and beam work and raise the trusses as I go. This will require me to build a hoist mechanism to raise the trusses and it will be a slow process. The advantage is that I can construct the roof at my own pace. Time will tell if this was a smart move or not.

The week was highlighted by the help and company of one of my two brothers. Jim drove up from the Chicago area to lend a hand and if we were lucky enough, view a few Perseid meteors at night. Jim helped raise a total of 42, 6 x 6 timbers up to the second floor with the aid of the rusty, trusty Bobcat. He also finished the flooring for the walk-around balcony that will wrap around the inside octagon. It was great having the help to get all of the post and beams up to the second floor in order to construct the second floor framing.

The weather for last week was marginal. There were only two days that it didn’t rain, but it could have been much worse if the forecast would have come true. On Wednesday night, Jim and I saw 8 Perseid meteors in about an hour before the clouds rolled in. But while it was clear, the Milky Way was directly overhead and it was a beautiful sight to behold along with the hooting of the barred and eastern screech owls.

This week’s Beanie Baby picture goes to the pair of hummingbirds that frequent the hummingbird feeder.